Thursday, May 11, 2017

A MUCH LOVED BABY & AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE {GUEST POST}

Written By: Allyson

I’m sharing
our story because our choice mattered. This choice shouldn’t be taken away from
parents. I believe we all do the best we can with the information we are given.
And we should be trusted to make the right choice for our babies and our own
bodies. My hope is that others will get to continue to choose what they feel is
right for their babies and their families.Sunday,
September 16, 2016 was one of the happiest days of my life. I told my husband
to go to the drug store to get a pregnancy test. I hadn’t slept well the night
before because of many pregnancy symptoms. I just KNEW I was pregnant. But I
didn’t believe it could happen our first month of trying. That disbelief went
away as soon as the word “pregnant” came up on the digital test. I had so many
plans on how I was going to reveal it to my husband. However, I was much too
excited to do any of those things. I immediately screamed while skipping
towards my husband. “We’re having a baby!” That’s all I could get out as tears
rolled down my face.The
following weeks, I was excited but also nervous about miscarrying. I spent
those weeks pleading with God not to allow me to lose this baby. I was so in
love with our baby from the moment we found out we were expecting. At our 10
week appointment, my Dr. found his heartbeat on the Fetal Doppler. It was
strong and my husband thought it sounded like a train. We were so joyful that
we cried the whole time we heard the heart beating. At that appointment, our
Dr. discussed genetic testing with us. He told us our chances of having a baby
with any fetal abnormalities would be low. We were healthy and young - so a 1 in
1200 chance of abnormalities - we were pretty confident our baby was fine. We
scheduled our NT scan and genetic testing blood draw for 12 weeks.Our 12 week
NT scan looked beautiful. Our baby was measuring normally, the heartbeat was
strong, and he had great placement. I was so overjoyed I couldn’t speak. I
really just wanted to make sure the tech was concentrating, so she didn’t miss
anything. She was pretty happy, so I was confident that things were really
looking good. She asked me if I wanted to know her guess of the gender. I was
so curious, I immediately said “yes!” She thought it was a HEALTHY girl, so I
left the scan to do our blood draw for the genetic testing - I had zero concerns
or nerves. I just knew our baby was healthy, and that was all that mattered to
me.Six days
later, the day before Thanksgiving at 4:55 PM, I saw I had missed a call from
my Dr. He left me a voicemail which was kind of confusing to listen to. Looking
back, I don’t think he looked at the results until he dialed my number. He had
no reason to believe there would be any abnormalities. I immediately called him
back. I could tell by the sound of his voice something was very wrong. He said
“Your baby is low risk for all Trisomies except Trisomy 21.” I didn’t
understand - I didn’t believe it. So I asked, “What is my baby’s percentage risk
of Trisomy 21?” He said, “There is a 99% chance your baby has Trisomy 21 based
on this test.” He asked me if I wanted to know the gender and I did. He said
our baby was a boy. Because this was the exact opposite result as 6 days
before, I was in complete denial. I was so sure that they had gotten our test
mixed up with someone else, so when my Dr. suggested an amniocentesis, I
agreed.I continued
to be in denial the next week, but I still cried. I cried so much over the fact
that our baby could possibly be sick. But I didn’t believe that the NT scan
could be so wrong. So I held on to hope until the following Tuesday when we saw
the Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) doctor. As soon as the tech confirmed our
baby was a boy, I just knew the test was accurate. The MFM looked somber when
he walked in to explain what he saw in the ultrasound. He explained they saw
two soft markers, which would correlate with T21. One of the soft markers was
the heart and the other was a sandal gap. He explained that he would never
recommend we make any decisions based on an ultrasound. So we scheduled an amniocentesis
for a week and a half later. Before he left the room, he asked us if we had any
other children. We both looked at each other and then said, “No, this is our
first.” His eyes were teary and he said, “This is not the way the first is
supposed to happen, I’m so sorry.”

The next
week and a half was agonizing. We spent those days researching Trisomy 21. I
really didn’t know a lot about Down Syndrome. I just thought it was a person
who had physical and developmental delays - which is true, but in many cases it’s
much more than that. We started to read as many articles and watch as many
YouTube videos as possible. Many of the articles we read were uplifting
stories, which made it sound like our son’s life would be as fulfilling as we
wanted it to be. The videos showed happy children and adults that shared jokes
and laughter. But the more we dug, the more we read about the hardships that
our son could possibly live with. People
with Down Syndrome have increased risks of heart problems, Leukemia, early
onset Alzheimer’s, and so much more. My heart dropped when I read all of them.
Heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s all run in my family, so they were my
main concerns. Because of our family history, our child would be at an increased
risk of that, AND because of T21, there would be another increased risk of those
issues on this baby. He was already a probable candidate for heart surgery. I
already couldn’t imagine bringing a tiny baby into the world with so many
struggles. But we continued to research, clinging on to hope that there would
be something that might give us a sign that our baby was going to have a good
life. When we came across parents who had raised their children with Down Syndrome, who could no longer take care of them—it was heartbreaking. The way
they described the pain they felt knowing that their child would be alone after
they passed away, was something I never wanted to experience with our child. We
encountered parents who shared how their child has never spoken, laughed,
walked, or fed themselves. It started to become clear that we needed to ask
more questions as to what our baby’s quality of life would be like.So, we went
into our amniocentesis with a list of questions for our MFM. One of those
questions was, “Can you tell us whether or not our baby will have a mostly
normal life, with only physical and developmental delays?” He said,
“Unfortunately, you most likely won’t know the type of life he will have until
he is born.” My heart dropped. We awaited our amniocentesis results with so
much hope. I prayed and cried and pleaded for a miracle. Unfortunately our miracle didn’t come. The
amniocentesis diagnosed our baby with Down Syndrome. The doctor asked me, “How
would you like to proceed with your pregnancy?” I wanted to sob uncontrollably.
I just let the tears roll down my face, took a deep breath, and then tried to
make the following words sound as loving as I could, “We have decided to
terminate.”The only
thing I would like to go into detail about the termination is that besides the
physical appearance of the clinic, the whole experience was as good as it could
have been. The doctor, nurses, and volunteers are some of the most loving and
compassionate people I have ever met. They held my hand, they cried with me,
and they told me they understood our decision. They truly made a difference
during such a tragic situation. And I thank and pray for them every day as they
continue to help people like my husband and I get through such devastating
experiences.I swore up
and down I would never share our whole story with the world. Part of me was
ashamed that we had chosen to end our pregnancy. But as the days continue to
pass and the more I learn about the type of my life my son would have had, best
case scenario, I know we did the best thing we could have done for him. The
words termination and abortion sound like the most hateful words out there. I
can tell you as someone who understands how important my choice was to have
this abortion, that for me it is a love-filled word. Our decision was and is
something that was only filled with love. A decision filled with love that
keeps our son, who we lovingly named Bradley, from a life of struggle. A
decision filled with love that keeps Bradley out of hospitals. A decision filled
with love that keeps Bradley from battling cancer. A decision filled with love
that keeps Bradley from ever having to be alone in a group home and not know
who he is. I fully believe that Bradley is in Heaven. I believe that God is
holding him close and telling him how much his mommy and daddy love him. I
believe that God knows our decision was made with love for our son. That is how
I live with our decision. Our son will always know who he is in Heaven. Our
hearts will never stop aching for him. I will never stop wondering what he
would have been like, how tight his hugs would have been, or what he would have
looked like. We gladly will hold those burdens of wonder and heartache, because
we know that Bradley will never have to experience a day of suffering.